A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War

The Civil War presented the first major opportunity for Americans to photograph fighting men and the places they battled and to create an extensive visual record of war. Most collections of such photographs, however, have focused on the leaders of the conflict and have treated the images only as illustrations for traditional narratives. Centering on the common soldier, Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War, the sixth in the University of Arkansas Press's award-winning series, tells the stories of the actual people, rich and poor, whose lives were changed forever by the nation's great drama. Here is the tale of a wife who disguised herself as a new recruit so she could avoid separation from her husband, and the brothers who suffered identical injuries and leg amputations within two weeks of each other. With over 250 photographs, maps, and related documents, McCaslin has superbly detailed the physical and spiritual suffering of ordinary Carolinians in their fight for their country, its land, and their own freedoms.